Where to relocate? Please suggest. (Atlanta, Dallas: rentals, crime, chapel)

[spalam01]

I am thinking of relocating to Atlanta, GA or Dallas, TX or Houston, TX or Jacksonville, FL

with following criteria in that order

a. Warmer tolerable weather year round
b. Cost of living/cost of home or rentals
c. Sr level career opportunities (IT/Corporate/R&D)
d. Affordable quality education for kids through public schools
e. Tolerable traffic during peak hours/availability of public transportation
f. Scenic beauty/easy access to recreation
g. Social life
h. Peaceful / reasonably less crime rate

What would be a better city to relocate? Atlanta, GA or Dallas, TX or Houston, TX or Jacksonville, FL

By reasonable/tolerable weather mean that being born and brought up in warmer place, I can tolerate the warmer weather but find it
difficult to handle harsh snow/cold winters

I Wish the commute time being less than 10 times but can tolerate within 30 to 40 minutes.

I prefer to buy SFH and probably rent a 2 BHK Apt to start with
I am not that outgoing either… probably availability of parks and tennis courts would be great

By "social life." I mean friendly neighbors and people/culture and not the clubs/bars as I never visited/drink in the past

A little background:
I am currently residing in San Francisco Bay Area. Though I am an IT consultant/contractor, I intend to make the place where I settle as a base with the hope that I can find a perm/FTE position and if that does not work, can travel to other parts of US for work on a need basis by taking up IT consulting assignments.

Currently my wife is a research scholar/scientist working in North Carolina and we hope that she can move with me by finding a position
in an University where I settle down and if that does not work probably do some research work with agencies/professors by working from home.

We have no kids yet.

I am currently in Bay area for last 3 months and I feel that Bay Area is real chilly and windy considering late spring/summer time frame. Not sure how chilly it will be during Winter. Moreover, the salary is very competitive here for IT folks which I think mostly due to supply-demand curve...
Also I keep hearing that the Bay area public schools are not that great and that more and more folks rely on Private schools, which is again very costly.

[moiraesfate]

Ok, I haven't moved to Atlanta yet so I can't say much on that one. I understand the attraction of Dallas and Houston but I've never lived there, my coworker wants to go back to Houston ASAP because she loves it so much. I'd suggest against Florida mostly because it constantly gets smashed by hurricanes.

One of the biggest reasons I want to move out of New Orleans is because of the threat of the hurricanes.

[westcoastbabe]

Did North Carolina just not have that appeal to you and your wife?

[roxyrn]

If your wife is currently employed in NC (I assume Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill), it seems as if that meets your criteria more than any of the other places you mentioned. My daughter lives in Chapel Hill, and although it lacks some of Atlanta's metropolitan perks such as major league sports teams, theater, museums, etc, it also has far less congestion, crime and traffic.

Given current conditions, I would highly suggest you move to where you have the most job security and never move without having a job, first.

[DeaconVI]

I agree with roxyrn. Raleigh is consistently well-ranked on quality-of-life rankings (takes into consideration a lot of things like weather, traffic, public transportation, housing prices, education systems and other criteria you mentioned) and is also a hub for IT and R&D careers (and pharma). I couldn't find a link to the rankings list, but I did find this artlicle from Reuters in 2010: Raleigh ranked top U.S. city for quality of life: poll | Reuters

I obviously am partial to Atlanta since I live here, but perhaps this post will help point out what may not have already been obvious about options in NC.